Shower Power
Calculating greenhouse gas savings from shorter showers

You're getting warmer…

The Earth's temperature is rising due to global warming. This phenomenon is primarily caused by the combustion of fossil fuels. Burning oil, gas and coal releases CO2 into the Earth's atmosphere at a rate faster than the planet's natural systems can absorb it. The main reason for burning fossil fuels is to generate energy for transportation, manufacturing, home maintenance, and other energy-consuming activities that do not rely on renewable energy sources (sun, wind, water, hamsters turning a wheel, etc.).

Vehicle use and maintaining a home are the two most energy-consuming activities carried out by residents of the United States. Therefore, they are the two areas of our lives responsible for the majority of the global warming gases released by our society.

Are you out of the shower yet…!?

Depending on which fossil fuel is being burned, the amount of CO2 emitted by power generation ranges from 1.32 pounds per kilowatt of power generated (natural gas) to 2.37 pounds per kilowatt (coal). For our purposes, we'll use an average of 2 pounds of CO2 per kilowatt of electricity.

The average US household consumes around 10,000 kilowatts of electricity per year. Approximately 15 percent of this energy is used for heating water.

In NCP workshops, teenagers are often asked to estimate how much household hot water is used for taking showers. The consensus seems to be around 75 percent. Of course it depends on how long one is in the shower with the water running, how high the water heater thermostat is set, how hot the bather likes the water, and what other household duties require hot water (doing laundry, washing dishes, etc.).

Doing the math

Using 75 percent as our figure, here's the calculation:

.15 (percent of home energy used for heating water) x .75 (percent of hot water used for showers) x 10,000 (total home use of electricity) x 2 (pounds of CO2 per kilowatt) divided by 2.7 (average no. of people per household) = approximately 800. Now, divide this by 2 (cutting your shower time in half) = 400 pounds of CO2.

Therefore, if one person in a 2.7 person household reduces shower time by half, there would be an annual CO2 emissions savings of 400 pounds. And saving this much electricity would also reduce your annual electricity costs by a cool $30.

Multiplication tables

§ Multiply by the number of people in your house to figure the savings if everyone halved their showers.

§ Multiply by the number of years you plan on living and see your lifetime impact.

§ Multiply by the number of people in your church, youth group or school class to see how the figures would really add up if more people took this simple step!

Shorter showers--taking the heat off the planet by cutting down on global warming gases.

Calculations by David Radcliff of the New Community Project, with lots of help from The Consumers' Guide to Effective Environmental Choices by the Union of Concerned Scientists and Earth Day Guide to Planet Repair by Dennis Hayes.